Chapter 108: Buying Info on Walfred
The moment he logged into the Hunter Community.
Walfred let out a dumbfounded laugh.
"Hah..."
He couldn’t help it.
Out of the hundreds of posts, most of them were all about him.
’I never expected the reaction to be this heated.’
He’d figured he would stir up some buzz, of course, but he hadn’t imagined the entire community would be plastered with his name.
With a look of fascination, Walfred tapped on the most recent post.
[Wait, wasn’t Walfred a light attribute? How the hell does a light attribute take down a Spirit King?]
[Why couldn’t he solo it?]
[LOLOLOL newbie spotted.]
[Dude, you’ve never fought a spirit, have you?]
[All spirits have crazy high resistance to light and life attributes. We’re talking your damage getting cut in half.]
’They do?’
Walfred’s eyes widened.
That was news to him too.
It was something he hadn’t even seen in SSS-rankProfessor’s posts, so he kept reading through the comments.
[Hunting spirits with a light attribute is basically like hunting undead with a dark attribute.]
[Whoa, seriously?]
[Wait, then what was all that talk about Walfred being an S-rank light attribute?]
[What do you think it was? LOL.]
[Just community hearsay.]
The longer the comment thread went on.
The more public opinion began tilting toward Walfred not being a light attribute at all.
[Then what attribute is he?]
[My guess is fire.]
[Yeah. After light and life, fire is the next best thing against undead.]
[Whoa! So you’re saying he’s an S-rank fire attribute?]
[Odds are good.]
No, you’re completely off the mark.
But the Hunters, none the wiser to the truth, kept leaving their opinions in the comments.
[Holy crap LMAOOO]
[Fire attribute S-ranks are kind of rare...]
[Not kind of, they’re insanely rare. You could probably count the fire attribute S-ranks left in the world on one hand.]
[For real. Every fire attribute S-rank got mobilized for the Antarctica Gate raid and went missing.]
[So where did Walfred even come from?]
[Where do you think? He’s gotta be a newbie who came up after the Antarctica Gate was liberated.]
[No, wtf. Does that even make sense?]
[Does it have to? Soloing a Spirit King doesn’t make sense in the first place LOL]
[He’s a Second Awakener, no question. Guaranteed.]
After scrolling through the rest of the comments.
People seemed to have shifted from believing Walfred was a light attribute to believing he was a fire attribute.
’Believe whatever you want.’
Walfred smirked.
As he hopped between boards, browsing through various posts, he came across one on the Wanted Board that caught his eye.
[Title]: Buying info on Walfred.
[Author]: DubaiChewy
A title announcing they were buying information on him.
Walfred tapped on the post right away.
-----
Buying info on Walfred with coins.
Tips appreciated.
[Area of activity: 300-500]
[Current location: 500-1,000]
[Level, attribute, etc.: 300-1,000]
[Community nickname: 5,000]
※Only send a friend request and start a 1:1 chat if you have solid info. If you spout nonsense or try to haggle, I will find you and make you pay.
-----
What’s he even going to do with that?
Walfred wore a baffled expression.
’Is he planning to come find me or something?’
Say he does come find me. Then what?
What’s he going to do? Beg me to cooperate for the greater good, like that guy on the international channel who keeps going on about retaking New York?
’What a joke.’
A cold smile crossed Walfred’s lips.
Whatever story they wanted to attach to it, he had no reason to help. That post on the Wanted Board was the last straw, and Walfred lost interest.
Just as he was about to log off.
Ding!
[You have received a 1:1 chat request from a friend.]
[Name: Ace]
A familiar nickname appeared.
The representative of the Silicon Alley Shelter, Chief Jonah.
’Oh, good timing.’
He’d been meaning to pass along some news about Erica anyway. And while he was at it, he wanted to hear how things were going in Key West too.
Walfred gladly accepted the request.
A chat message came through shortly after.
[Ace]: Hello, Hunter Walfred.
[Ace]: Do you have a moment to talk?
Courteous as ever.
Walfred typed out a reply saying he was free. Messages quickly started rolling in.
[Ace]: I saw the powerful enemy extermination notice.
[Ace]: First the Bone Drake, and now you’ve taken down a Spirit King all by yourself...
[Ace]: Truly incredible.
[Me]: I just got lucky.
Walfred brushed off the compliment.
Jonah then started asking questions, saying he was curious about anything related to spirits. There was nothing particularly worth hiding, so Walfred explained everything he’d been through.
Once that conversation wrapped up.
Walfred changed the subject.
[Me]: By the way, Chief.
[Ace]: Yes?
[Me]: About that news from the Coral Cave Shelter you mentioned before, any idea when I might hear something?
Jonah had told him previously.
That an acquaintance of his, a Hunter active in Key West, would check whether Jenna was among the survivors from Brooklyn Girls’ Academy staying at the Coral Cave Shelter.
Walfred calmly waited for a response, and before long, a message appeared.
[Ace]: Ah, about that...
[Ace]: I’m sorry.
[Ace]: There’s been a bit of a problem.
[Me]: A problem?
[Ace]: Yes. A few days ago, a B-rank gate appeared near Smathers Beach, about 2.5 to 3 miles from the Coral Cave.
A gate appearing.
Walfred’s expression hardened.
[Me]: Don’t tell me the gate has been breached?
[Ace]: No, it hasn’t been breached.
[Ace]: It only appeared recently.
Small mercies, at least.
[Ace]: In any case, given the situation, the Coral Cave Shelter said they’re going to attempt to clear the gate before it breaches.
[Ace]: My acquaintance is on good terms with the Coral Cave Shelter’s administrator, so he offered to lend a hand with the gate raid. Which means...
The search for Walfred’s niece, which had originally been planned, was on hold for the time being.
On top of that, since the Community couldn’t be accessed at all from inside a gate, there was currently no way to reach him.
[Ace]: The moment we reestablish contact, I’ll ask him to make finding your niece his first priority.
[Ace]: I’m truly sorry.
[Me]: Understood. It can’t be helped.
[Me]: Thank you for looking into it.
For now, all he could do was hope the gate raid ended safely. Swallowing his disappointment, Walfred changed the subject once more.
[Me]: Oh, that reminds me.
[Me]: I have a message for Lauren.
[Ace]: ??? For Lauren?
[Me]: I found her elder sister, Erica, at the Central Avenue underground shopping center shelter in Philadelphia.
For a moment, the chat window went silent.
And then.
[Ace]: Is, is that true?!
Back came a stunned reaction.
Walfred gave a detailed account of how he’d come to meet Erica in Philadelphia.
He deliberately left out the part about her being captured by monsters and then rescued, though. It might only give Lauren unnecessary worry.
[Ace]: What a relief!
[Ace]: Lauren is going to be overjoyed when she hears this.
[Ace]: Thank you, sincerely.
Watching Jonah gush over the news.
Walfred allowed himself a faint smile.
It felt like the heavy weight of debt that had been pressing on a corner of his heart was finally lifting.
Walfred chatted with Jonah a while longer, then logged off the Community.
"Yaaawn."
Maybe it was because he’d finished everything he needed to do?
The tension drained away, and his eyelids grew heavy.
’Time to get some sleep.’
Walfred lay down beside Elsa, who was sleeping soundly, and closed his eyes. Thinking that they should leave this place first thing in the morning, he drifted into a deep sleep.